Montessori basics

Education is the process of facilitating the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs and habits. Knowledge is perceiving, discovering, learning facts, information, and descriptions.

Montessori prepares a child in mixed-age classrooms in which children learn from each other by giving and receiving information. The student has a choice of activities from a limited range of options with uninterrupted blocks of time to develop focus and thoughtfulness and not being rushed into a decision. The student learns to gather enough information to come to an intelligent decision and consider probable outcomes of his decision. Students learn by doing the steps of a task in order (you cannot learn to build a house by building the roof first).

Montessori prepares a child for success and the child will never feel that learning is a struggle. There are four areas of learning: Practical Life, Sensorial, Language, and Mathematics.

practical life

​Practical Life is basic, useful and purposeful. Your child will learn: Preliminary Skills like pouring from a pitcher, folding clothing, and carrying items; Applied Skills such as washing hands, caring for his environment (straightening up and sweeping the floor); Grace, Courtesy and Manners, dealing with people; and Movement such as walking, running and balance which teaches him mind control of body movements. Your child will learn simple basic tasks such as carrying scissors, turning pages of a book, opening a door, in addition to concentration and focus, movement and muscle development.

sensorial

​Sensorial Life is being aware of senses. Your child will learn how to acquire clear information regarding what is going on around him: is someone baking cupcakes; did a stinky truck just drive by; my hair smells really good after my bath. Your child will learn to be observant as in “that is a beautiful sunset, look at all those colors”; how different it feels to pet a kitten than to pet an alligator; how weight and gravity affect picking up a big rock and a Lego block; the difference between hot and cold; how to notice sounds and what they mean – a bird singing is different than a dog barking. Your child will learn that sounds cannot hurt him, but are a warning, perhaps, of something that can hurt him. Your child will learn how to put the smell of something together with the taste of it, and he will learn to know what smells he loves and which ones he does not like. He will learn to identify smells that should or should not be in his environment such as smoke from a fire or a skunk. With his eyes closed, your child will learn how to identify objects by touching them – the difference between a ball and a building block. When he feels the touch of air on his skin, he can conclude that there is fan nearby, an open window or door, or the air conditioner just kicked in. He can make intelligent conclusions about what is going on around him by paying attention to his senses.

language

​Children absorb language from the moment they are born (perhaps sooner). They gather the meanings of words by the tone of voice in which they are spoken, the expression on their mother’s or father’s face, and the actions of those around them. They know when you hold out your arms that they are meant to come to you. They are natural born mimics.

Your child will learn how to communicate by speaking, reading and writing three languages – Mandarin, Spanish and English. Everything your child learns will be learned in these three languages simultaneously. It is a most remarkable phenomenon how easily and completely children learn languages.

mathematics

​A child by the age of four years has a good foundation for mathematics. The child has a sense of his own internal order. He has learned to control his movements and can sit and concentrate for longer periods. He has a work ethic and can complete a task and feel a sense of accomplishment. He can take direction and takes pleasure in being helpful. He has learned how to do things in an organized fashion and can do repeat chores easily i.e., brushing his teeth, getting dressed, etc. He is ready to take on most things and is anxious to get started on mathematics. Although he does not yet know it as such. Numbers are fun. He learns quantities (counting 1 to 10) and then learns the shape for each number. (In Mandarin, Spanish and English.) He then learns to put them all in order. Learning what comes after ten, the decimal system and other advanced concepts are there waiting for him to learn as fast as he can. He has gotten a good basic understanding of mathematics and can go on to learn infinite combinations of how numbers work in our world.